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Baby Balnet
The Baby Balnet (ベビーバルネット) is a Japanese 3×4cm folding camera, certainly made by Fuji Kōgaku at some time in the 1940s. Original documents No original document mentioning the Baby Balnet has been found yet. However the official list of set prices dated November 1941 has a "Balnet", placed among various 4.5×6cm cameras and attributed to Nomura Seisakusho, with no further detail. , type 3, section 7B. General description The Baby Balnet is a vertical folding camera. The main body is very similar to that of the Baby Lyra, of which it is perhaps an evolution. The advance knob is at the bottom right, as seen by a photographer holding the camera horizontally. The back is hinged to the left. The name BALNET is embossed in the leather covering at the front. First model: folding optical finder The presumably early model has a folding optical finder. That version may have been produced in the early 1940s, but this is unconfirmed. The only example observed so far is pictured in . , item 1032. In that source, the camera is attributed to "Fuji Optical Co.", a translation of Fuji Kōgaku. It has a small black advance knob and a small body release, and its body edges are painted black. The lens is front-cell focusing and is reported as a Nomular Anastigmat 50/2.9. (The name Nomular might be related to Nomura.) The shutter gives B, 1–200 speeds; the name BALNET is inscribed at the bottom of the speed rim in plain capital letters and there is another marking at the top, perhaps reading Mars Kogaku Tokyo and indicating that the shutter was made by Mars. Second model: top housing and rigid finder The presumably late model has a chrome-plated top housing covering all the top plate and containing the viewfinder, slightly offset to the left. There is an accessory shoe to the right of the finder and a body release on the left. The advance knob is all metal and is larger than on the previous model. There is a single red window in the back, protected by a horizontally sliding cover. The name BALNET is engraved at the front of the top housing and the serial number is engraved above the viewfinder. The folding struts are engraved with a FUJI.K TOKYŌ logo. The camera was certainly made after the war by Fuji Kōgaku, at about the same time as the postwar Lyra Six, to which it shows some design similarity. Surprisingly, the logo does not have the typical shape of the other logos used by the company: it only shows a cemented doublet lens scheme without the silhouette of Mount Fuji. A few surviving examples are known. The best known camera has body no.2395. Example belonging to Mr Saji (who used the pseudonym Zaisu Ikon), pictured in , item 1278, in no.38, p.27, and in no.57, p.2. The body number is visible on p.27 of no.38. In , item 1278, that particular camera is attributed to "Mars Optical Works" (actually the maker of the shutter) and to "Fuji Trading Co." (or Fuji Shōji, certainly related to Fuji Kōgaku). Its lens and shutter equipment is almost the same as the camera with folding finder described above: the lens is a Nomular Anastigmat 50/2.9, and the shutter has identical markings and B, 1–250 speeds. (That lens and shutter were perhaps made before 1945.) The camera has black-painted body edges. Other cameras have a Balnet Anastigmat 50mm f/3.5 lens and a newer Balnet shutter (B, 1–200), with a pin for flash synchronization at the bottom. Example belonging to Katō Tomoaki, pictured on p.32 of no.35 (the body number is reported as no.2205), and example observed in an online auction. The position of the controls is unchanged, but the name BALNET is engraved on the rim in fancy letters and the front plate has a black and chrome pattern with no markings. At least one example has chrome plating on all the body edges, and another has black paint on the main body and chrome plating on the edges of the folding bed. Notes Bibliography * Type 3, section 7B. * Katō Tomoaki (加藤智顕). "Letter to C.C.N." In no.35 (May 1980). Nishinomiya: Camera Collectors News-sha. P.32. * P.328. * Item 1032 and 1278. * Zaisu Ikon (座椅子遺恨, probably a pseudonym of Y. Saji). "Besuto sanka (B-1)" (ベスト讃歌B-1, Vest hymn B-1). In no.57 (March 1982). Nishinomiya: Camera Collectors News-sha. P.2. * Zaisu Ikon (座椅子遺恨, probably a pseudonym of Y. Saji). "Letter to C.C.N." In no.38 (August 1980). Nishinomiya: Camera Collectors News-sha. P.27. The Baby Balnet is not listed in . Balnet, Baby Balnet, Baby Category: B